The present invention relates to an apparatus and a process for producing vacuum blood collecting tubes, and more particularly to an apparatus and a process for preparing vacuum blood collecting tubes from tubular containers having an open end and a bottom by spraying a blood coagulant to the inner surface of each of the containers, injecting a serum separating agent into the bottom portion of the container, and closing the open end of the container with a stopper after evacuating the interior thereof.
Production of such vacuum blood collecting tubes requires the steps of checking the bottom portion of the tubular container for pinholes, spraying the blood coagulant to the inner surface of the container, injecting the serum separating agent into the bottom portion of the container, and closing the open end of the container after evacuating the interior thereof. Conventionally, these steps were performed individually.
Especially in the serum separting agent injecting step, the agent must be injected into the tubular container with the interior of the container held in a vacuum to prevent introduction of air thereinto. This presents extreme difficulty in automating the step.